A passenger boarding bridge of the claimed type, for example shown in WO 2014/146758 A1, connects an airplane with a terminal building via a tunnel. The tunnel may be extendible and comprises at least two tunnel sections, which can be telescoped for adjusting the length of the tunnel to the distance between an airplane door and the terminal building. The tunnel sections are connected by roller bearings to enable relative movement of the tunnel sections during telescoping. U.S. Pat. No. 3,184,772 A discloses a conventional bearing concept, that uses rollers between the two tunnel sections.
However the forces onto the bearings are that high, that enormous wear is applicable to the rollers and the bearing surfaces. This is in main caused by the nearly point or line shaped contact surfaces of the rollers and the respective bearing surface, which causes high stress on the small contact surface. The stress is also a cause for increased corrosion on the bearing rail surfaces.
Thus a need exists to reduce wear on bearings of tunnel sections of passenger boarding bridges.